Part 2 - Finally...

So back in June I was trying to wade through the process of buying a new to me car, and with that my first EV car at that. As a reminder to myself here were the contenders:

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV

2018 Nissan Leaf

2020 Nissan Leaf S Plus

2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV

After test drives, some at places that seemed to not want to sell the car they had on the lot, we made the call to go with the 2020 Chevrolet Bolt. I see these things in the light of provedence, and this car has truly been wonderful with some interesting lessons along the way.

The lesssons:

Lesson 1: Charging

For the first several weeks, I charged the Bolt with 120 volt at 8 amps charger. At one point I estimated that it would take over 50 hours to charge the Bolt from 25% battery to 80%. While this was doable in the summer, being an Albertan makes one mindful of Winter, this would not suffice when the temperatures will cut the range and therefore increase the need to charge the Bolt more frequently.

Enter a 240 volt charger at 32 amps! So now with a $350 charger and $500 of an electrical work I have a home charger that can take the Bolt from 25% to 80% charge in 5 hours. This makes Winter survivable with a EV. I might even turn the heater on now!

Lesson 2: You never think about it

One of the really interesting things that I have found is that I never think about it being an EV. It's a car that happens to take electrons (forgive me electrical engineers) instead of petrol. For weeks, I have driven by gas stations with slight bemusement as I only occasionally notice the price of gas. Yes our other car is an hybrid, but I never drive or fuel that vehicle so it's become something that I removed from my consciousness.

Lesson 3: More solar

I have solar panels to offset the house electric draw, which got me curious if I could expand the system to accommodate the EV. The answer is yes and I'm just awaiting the installation of another 8 panels that will offset the EV use, and all through a municipal loan program that spreads the cost out over 20 years and is applied to our property tax bill.

Lesson 4: New car parts are expensive

This would be the case with any newer car, in that parts for the Bolt aren't cheap. One of the headlights burnt out and the OEM part price for single blub - $350. Ouch. A side note is that the engineer that designed how to get to the blub should have stern talking to given that most of the YouTube videos to replace the blubs are 45 minutes in length.

Summary: I love this car

I really do love this car. I mean it does car things, it's comfortable, it's simple to maintain (so far). Another side note is that didn't think that I would enjoy single pedal driving as much as I do. Releasing the accerlator and having the car immediately slow is magical. Guessing correctly when to take your foot off the pedal to stop at a stop sign becomes a game. It just makes just a tiny bit more fun to drive in town.

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